Saving Dragons
by Ranekaera
Summary: Paige is out for a normal day, enjoying her latte, when a new demon appears right in the middle of the cafe! Little do they know, it's no demon... R&R PLEASE,  CHAPTER UPDATE, CHAPTER 7 IS UP!
1. A Sad day for Dragons

Hey, this is just a story that's been buzzing around my head for the past three months, and what with the chores and lousy homelife, and all my other stories, I haven't had time to write it down, so here it is!!

A dragon in disguise is discovered, and what she has to say shocks the witches into helping save her species.

DISCLAIMER: Yes, ok, since everyone else is, I may as well save my own ass, I do not own anything but the dragons, the plot, the unfamiliar characters are all mine, so no stealing. NOT A SLASH STORY

Enjoy and PLEASE REVIEW!!!

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_Place: Draccon valeeigh : "valley of the dragons"_

_Dragon year: 1012_

_Human year: 2007_

_Typical dragon temperature: 102 degrees farenheit_

_Weather: chaotic_

It was the day they had all come to dread, the day that The Others invaded their home and started killing at random. The Others may have had their own name for it, killing vermin, ridding the world of their filth, but whatever it was to them, the Dragons of their home had only one word for it.

Slaughter.

The main fighting took place in the main valley of their world, parallel to the human world. The Other's raided cave homes and sanctuaries that had been safe for over a thousand years of freedom and peace and slaughtered everyone; the old, the sick, the healthy and the young.

Three young dragons hid behind one of the many cliffs and grassy knolls that inhabited that part of their world and watched, helpless as their freinds, family and kin were murdered for no other reason than existing, and as each one died, they felt their magic die with them. The edges of the world they had been born in and known for so long began to curl at the edges and turn ashen gray.

"It is time for us to go," said one to his sister. Behind them, the precious few who decided to hide instead of be killed nodded in agreement.

They opened the portal to the human realm and one by one, they exited from what they knew, to a world they had only heard stories about.

The humans.


	2. Pact of secrecy and disguise

This one will be longer.

P.S. lots of reviews, please!!! I eat them like food and it makes me update more!

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The dragons all looked at one another. All in all, there were about 200 of them standing there in the middle of the grassy human meadow. As they all looked around at each other and their surroundings, another fifty passed between the realms.

With the portal closed once more as it should be, the leader, the oldest and wisest of them all, who had been young when the humans had almost killed them to extinction, Tiamat, Queen of the dragons, spoke up. Her voice was low and gravelly with age and there were deep pockets of unprotected skin under her eyes, the signs of old age among dragons. She spoke in the common language, the language of the dragons.

"There are so few of us left. We must assume that those of us not present are lost to us forever."

At these words, all the dragons bowed their magnificent heads in sorrow and respect and listened to the wise words of the leader.

"We must disguise ourselves if we are to survive among these humans. Do as I do. Anyone who cannot, recieve help from someone who can,"

Being vain as all dragons are, but not without a touch of modesty, she transformed, with a bright white light, into a beautiful middle aged human with blue eyes and black hair in her natural state; that is, she was unclothed.

One by one, every dragon in the meadow tansformed themselves using the immortal magic they had left as one species, until nearly all dragons in the clearing appeared to be human. Male, female, adults, children, infants and even a variety of shorter human adults who would be considered midgets among human society. All of them were unclothed, and they felt it as the wind tore through the plain. Not one shivered, however.

"Now for clothing," said Tiamat, and once again, all the dragons in the clearing magically created various articles of clothing, from dresses and pants, to high heels and tube tops.

A loud squeak captured their attention all of a sudden from behind. In their rush to get away from the killing in the dragon valley, a horde of non-dragon animals common in their realm had followed them through the portal.With a wave of her new human hands, Tiamat transformed all the non-dragon animals from their realm into ordinary house cats.

"Keep these human pets with you at all times. They will be used as communication between all of us whenever we are too far apart." instructed Tiamat again. The rest of the dragons listened and each grabbed a cat.

"Go out into the human world, find lives for yourselves, and shimmer back here for a meeting in a month. Keep your identities secret. Create new names for yourselves. Tell NO ONE what you really are. Not even the scorcerers or witches or demons, if any are left." she said sternly.

"We promise, Queen Tiamat," said sevral dragons. The younger ones nodded, although still not entirely sure what was going on.

Tiamat noticed them and smiled with her human mouth.

"Human young are not as smart as you or I, so the younger ones will have to stay with those who appear as human adults, to keep our cover," she finished. Again, they all nodded in agreement. In times like these, free will was not the issue.

It was imperative that they survive, whatever the cost.

One by one, they all shimmered and faded from view to do as Tiamat had instructed.

Only three were left in the end, all siblings, the ones who had watched the horrible battle from behind the cliffs. They all looked at one another sadly and the only girl began to cry. Her twin brothers comforted her as only dragons can; by crying with her.

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Well, what do you think? The next chap will be from the Charmed one's POV!!!


	3. Not another demon!

From Paiges POV, it features the Charmed ones and Leo, and all the rest so please read and review to tell me what you think, because I;m not sure if I got Paige and pheobe's personalities right! I only got Piper's right because she's a lot like a very good friend of mine, even in appearance... spooky.

P.S. I'm putting Cole in here just because I feel like it, and I haven't actually seen every episode, and all the cahracters, good and bad, have a tendency to pop up here and there and everywhere... lol. Cole and Pheobe's relationship is still where it was in the episode where Pru had to face her mother's death and Piper and Leo were on their whitelighter honeymoon :D

Please R&R!!!

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Paige was just out for an ordinary break from her extemely unoprdinary life when, FWOOOSH! All of a sudden, a spurt of flames and a shimmering form erupts from the next table over and everyone starts screaming and running!

Paige rolled her eyes.

"So much for a break and my latte!" she said sarcastically. She stood up quickly, ready to kick whatever demon's butt it was this time, but all she saw was an ordinary 16 year old girl with a black shirt and black jeans smiling up at her with oddly pointed teeth.

"Where'd he go?" she mutterd to herself.

She had to get home and tell the others.

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Piper?" she called, walking into the house and slamming the door a bit too hard. She wore a backless halter top and a pair of blue jeans, and her strawberry blonde hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail.

"In here!" her sister called from the kitchen.

Paige hurried in and found Piper in front of the stove cooking macaroni and cheese for Wyatt, who was in a high chair.

"What's wrong? You look like... oh no. What now?" Piper asked, halfway between a spoonfull of cheesy pasta and a plastic kiddie bowl.

"I was in the cafe having a latte, and a demon just shimmered in outta nowhere." she said in a rush.

Piper stood looking at her with one eyebrow raised and the spoon of pasta still paused halfway beteen the bowl and the pot it was simmering in.

She cocked her head a little and gave a small sarcastic smile.

"Wwwwwhad'you mean?" she said.

"It was like he didn't even care who was around him when he did it, and there was fire and the next thing I know, there's this girl in black sitting there smiling at me!" Paige explained. It was very dodgy.

"Girl? Maybe it was a she demon, Paige. Just please tell me you didn't lead it here, I told you, I would like one demon-free day to spend with my sons," she said, spooning macaroni into a bowl at last and giving it to Wyatt with a rubber spoon. He happily began eating, ignoring his mother and his aunt.

Piper leaned against a counter and Paige just stood there. She had to get the book of shadows and try to find out what this new demon could be and how to vanquish it.

"Right, well, while you breast feed Chris, I'm gonna orb upstairs and check the book of shadows and see if I can find this demon," said Paige. Piper smiled and nodded.

"Good idea," she said. Paige orbed out.

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She flipped through the pages of the Book of Shadows, searching for anything about shimmering, fiery, girl demons. Not surprisingly, she found nothing.

"Wait a minute..." she muttered, flipping back to a previous page.

"Dragon demons..." she muttered again, reading on.

"Demons of the underworld, they live in clans, they appear human, but with predisposition for evil and with dragon abilities, making them dangerous. They roam among mortals searching for the most powerful sources to feed off of."

There then followed a vanquishing potion for them.

She bounced downstairs, the Book of Shadows in her arms and let it fall onto the table in the foyer. The noise it made attracted Pheobe, who had just walked through the door.

"The Book of Shadows? What, is there another demon?" she asked, setting the car kleys on the table near the front door and taking her coat off. She held a paper grocery bag in her arms; apparently she had stopped off at the pagan store where they bought all their potion ingredients.

"I think so... it might be a dragon demon," said Paige.

"Dragon demon?" said Pheobe in surprise. Their other, older sister, Pru, had almost been killed by a dragon demon before they met Paige. The death of their older sister still hurt. (A/T:I've never actually seen that episode, I really want to !!)

"Did I just hear someone say dragon demon?" said Piper from the kitchen.

She emerged with a smear of cheese on one cheek. Pheobe giggled.

"Feeding Wyatt?" she asked. Piper laughed sarcastically.

"Yes, I am. Or at least I was, until Paige orbed in here and said something about a demon... are you sure it's a dragon demon?" she asked concernedly, glancing down at the book.

"Not entirely." said Paige.

"Well, what did the demon look like?" asked Pheobe, also glancing down at the book.

"I dunno, he or she vanished before I could... hang on a minute. Unless it was the kid," she said, remembering the scene over again.

"What kid?" asked Piper.

The kid that was there, some girl with black clothes and... her teeth were kinda pointy." said Paige, remembering again how the girl had smiled at her.

"Pointy? Like a vampire?" asked Piper.

"No, no no, she shimmered, and I dunno where the flame came from, but she looked like a teenager. I dunno if it was a dragon demon," said Paige. For some reason, it didn't seem right. The book said dragon demons didn't shimmer, let alone with flames. But what else could she have been?

"But... if what Paige saw wasn't a dragon demon, then... what was it?" asked Pheobe.

No one answered. They didn't know.

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Hope you liked it, please read and review!!!! And give me some ideas on improving the Charmed one's personalities!! I haven't been watching it for long even though I never miss an episode.


	4. Leo outsmarted

From Leo's POV. lol the dragons like to play, apparently.

P.S. Thanks to Joleca for the review, I REALLY wanna see the episode "death takes a halliwell" but I haven't seen it yet... Cole will appear shortly! Sooner than you think... insert evil laugh

Please, Please, PLEEEASE R&R!

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"Leeeoo!!!!"

Leo groaned. He looked at the elder he had been talking with. He smiled and said "go. They need you. We can talk about this new power later,"

Leo nodded and orbed out.

He orbed back into the Halliwell Manor.

"You called?" he asked, folding both hands in front of his lap and wearing a benign but annoyed expression.

"Yes, we did. Paige thinks she found a new demon," said Piper, smiling at him.

She walked over to him and leaned her back against his chest so he could wrap his arms around her, which he did.

"New demon? Are you sure it's not the Avatars again?" he asked. The elders had only recently found out about the Avatars.

"Pretty sure. The thing is, we're not sure what kind of demon this is. Paige was the one who saw it, she says they shimmered into the cafe outside and there was fire..." Pheobe trailed off.

"They?" asked Leo, staring at Paige.

"She," she corrected him.

"She? Well, what kinda demon do you think it was? Did you check the book of shadows?" asked Leo.

"We did, but the closest thing we could find were dragon demons. We just don't see how it could match up. They don't shimmer, and not with fire," said Piper.

"Well, I'll check with the elders, see what they think," said Leo. With that, he orbed out, not taking Piper with him.

"Dragon demons?" said the elders, when Leo told them.

"Yeah, only... Paige said it shimmered with fire right in the middle of a crowded cafe," added Leo.

"Hmmm. Shimmering fire. You said the girl smiled up at her with pointy teeth?" asked the elder.

Leo nodded.

The elder beckoned to his fellow elders. They all formed a hudle and began clicking in an aggitated way. Leo only caught a few words.

"Leo. The others and I do not think this demon is the only one, nor is it a dragon demon. You must keep your eyes out for these beings and alert us the moment you get wind of a second one. This is not the first time we have heard of these fire shimmering demons. Once before, far back in time, they were a menace to our kind, feeding off our magic and almost destroying us completely. Approach with caution, Leo. And advise the Charmed ones to do the same," said the elder sternly.

Leo nodded and orbed back down.

"Pheobe, do you think you could contact Cole?" he asked the blonde, who was lounging in a chair, reading a book. She looked up at the mention of her old boyfiend's name.

"Cole? Why?" she asked, instantly on alert.

"The elders say it wasn't a dragon demon, there are... more than one of them. They say it's happened in the distant past and these things almost wiped us out. " he told her.

She got up immediately and grabbed her coat.

"I'll head to the masoleum," she said, grabbing the keys to the SUV. She headed out the door without delay, and Paige walked in.

"Where's Pheobe going? Did the elders tell you about the dragon demon?" she asked.

"Um, yeah, they said that it wasn't a dragon demon, they don't know what it is, but they took it very seriously. Back in time, they said these things came in big numbers and almost wiped all of us out, feeding off of our magic. You guys have to be very careful," he explained.

"Well, if it's not a dragon demon, then what is it?" asked Paige, looking skeptical.

Leo sighed.

"I dunno, but if I were you, I'd go back to the cafe and see if you can find anything she may have left behind," said Leo. He wasn't sure if Paige would find anything, but if the elders took the news this seriously, then why shouldn't he be worried? Better safe than sorry.

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Leo helped Piper look after Wyatt and baby Chris while they both waited for Paige to return with what she may or may not find at the cafe where the so called "demon" had appeared.

"How long did she say she'd be gone?" asked Piper, gently prying Chris's pacifier from Wyatt's mouth and returning it to its owner. Wyatt lookd up at his mother as if she had done him a personal wrong, promptly forgave her, and continued playing with his legos.

"She didn't, she just said she was going to the masoleum to see if we could get some help from Cole," replied Leo, watching his sons play and loving them beyond compare.

"Hmm. She's been gone an awful long time," mused Piper, leaning against Leo's shoulder and watching their sons with him.

_Meanwhile, with Pheobe and Cole..._

"Cole, what is that?" asked Pheobe. They were walking across the cemetary and Pheobe pointed to a tombstone about 20 yards away where she had just seen a single tongue of flame.

Cole gently grabbed her upper arm, just to make sure, and looked to where she pointed. His eyesight was quite a bit better than a normal human's, because of his demon blood, and he saw a young boy dressed in blue dart behind a gravestone and peer out at them both.

"Wait here," he whispered. He left her where she was, something he didn't like doing, and he hid behind a large stone cross on a pedestal. He shimmered, reappearing behind the blue-clad boy in hiding.

Being as silent as he could, he grabbed the boy by the shoulder, and before he could escape or even react, Cole shimmered, grabbed Pheobe, and shimmered again to the Halliwell Manor.

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"Let me go, please!" came a cry from the foyer. Piper and Leo, taken by surprise, jumped and hurried into the foyer.

Cole stood there with Pheobe, nd he held a young boy dressed in blue by the arm. He showed no signs of wanting to let go.

"Cole! What are you doing?" cried Piper in that calm way she had of doing.

"We found him in the cemetary, hiding behind a stone, spying on us. He's one of those demons Paige saw, I'm sure of it," he replied scathingly.

"Who are you? What kind of demon are you?" Piper demanded.

"Demon?" said the boy. He immediately stopped struggling, and upon seeing that he was in no immediate danger, he wrenched free from Cole's grip. Cole still glared at him. This "boy" didn't smell right. He wasn't human, of tht Cole was sure. And he was no demon. What on earth was he?

Cole grasped Pheobe's hand, and she squeezed it very briefly before letting go.

"You won't kill me?" said the boy, his unnaturally light blue eyes darting from one person to the next. Cole suddenly caught the unmistakable smell of sulfur and smoke. He knew that smell. It smelled like fire.

"Don't even think of shimmering," he warned, glaring at the boy. The boy jumped and stared up at him. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed and he gave an inhuman growl.

"Demon," he muttered. It was not a question.

"Half demon. What are you?" demanded Cole.

The boy refused to answer. Instead, his pupils contracted and he made a high pitched screeching noise. Cole covered his ears and total mayhem took the room. All he saw was a flash of bright blue and a tongue of flame, and the boy had vanished, snatched by another, bright green flash of light.

Pheobe, Piper, Leo and Cole all stared at the spot where the boy had been. All that remained was a slight scorch mark and a single, large green feather.

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Leo's POV

Leo picked up the feather and examined it. It burned him, but he refused ot drop it. He smelled it. It reeked of sulfur and fire.

"I have to take this up to the elders, they have to see it," he said, and before anyone could protest, he orbed out.

"We sw the whole thing, let us see the feather," said the nearest elder at once. Leo obediantly handed it over and waited as the elders examined it from every angle.

"This is no bird feather," one clicked.

"No... hand me the solution," said another.

They dropped the large green feather into a pot of liquid and there was a BANKG anda tremendous cloud of green smoke. They all looked on as the smoky shape took form above the pot. Even from a distnace, Leo thought there was no mistaking that shape.

It was the shape of a dragon.

"Leo, you must get the girls out of the manor for the time being. This is far more serious than we feared. Take them to magic school and tell them to stay there," said one elder sternly. Leo nodded and orbed back to the manor.

Leo appeared in the foyer to complete confusion. The two girls were lounging about, reading and playing with Wyatt and Cole was sitting on the floor staring at the scorch mark on the floor.

"What are you guys doing? C'mon, I need to getchyou outta here," said Leo. (A/N: If "getchyou" isn't a word, I am officially making it one)

"What are you talking about, why?" asked Pheobe.

Leo stared, not believeing his ears.

"I'm serious, the elders analyzed that feather. It belongs to a dragon. A real dragon, as in fire breathing, dragon?" Leo attempted to rouse Piper off the couch but she shined at him and pulled away.

"I'm playing with the child," she said. Leo then tried Pheobe. Her reaction was similar.

"Leo, lemme read!" she insisted.

Leo turned to Cole.

"Cole?" he said, at a loss for an explanation, throwing up his hands.

Cole looked up, his finger on his lower lip in a thoughtful pose.

"They don't remember. I already tried, they've been put under some sort of spell," he said softly. Leo looked around at the girls again.

"Do you guys even remember what just happened? That boy dressed in blue?" Leo tried jumping their memories.

"Boy in blue? Leo what are you talking about?" asked Pheobe.

"Are you seeing the creature heads again? " asked Piper, truly concerned.

Leo threw up his hands once more, fed up.

The dragon had apparently called for help, and in shimmering, they had apparently erased all memory from the girl's minds.

They had gotren away, and Leo was left with two witches who had no memory of the incident and a half demon who was helpless to convince them.

The dragons had won this round, thought Leo. They wouldn't win the second.


	5. Magic school summoning

This takes place at Magic School. Gideon is dead. Cole isn't allowed, but he shimmers in anyway, hehehe...

Please review! And tell me what you think of the dragons!

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"Leo! What are we doing in magic school? Why are you being like this!" complained Paige angrily, after Leo forcefully (with Cole's help) orbed all four of them to the magic school library.

"I told you, when the dragon got help from his friend, they must have erased your memories of the incident," explained Leo, once again. Cole was looking around nervously, as if unsure if he should be there.

"How about I go down and see if I can find anything?" he offered. Leo nodded, and Cole shimmered out of view, presumably to the underworld. It was risky for him, with the bounty on him, but Leo appreciated any help they could get these days.

"Well, if they erased our memories, what happened?" asked Paige.

"Cole and Pheobe found one in the cemetary and brought it back, but before we could get anything out of him, he shimmered out with a friend and erased your memories. Paige, did you find anything in the cafe?" asked Leo.

"I got this," she said skeptically, holding it up.

It was a small, downy feather. Orange with dark flecks in color.

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"Why are we scrying for a dragon?" aked Pheobe conversationally. Piper was scrying with the little fluffy feather and Leo was pacing impatiently. Paige was watching with interest.

No one bothered answering her. There was no vanquishing spell for dragons that they could find in the library. No one knew anything more about them than that they could shape shift and shimmer. They were obviously magical.

Finally, after about half an hour (Piper's arm was getting a little numb), the crystal finally landed... right in the middle of magic school.

"Uh-oh," she said.

Paige looked over her shoulder, curious.

"It's it magic school?" she echoed.

"What?" asked Leo, not believing it.

"Looking for me?"

All four of them jumped and looked up at the figure that had appeared in the doorway to the library, arms folded and hair orange. She wasn't wearing anything, and Piper hastily cupped a hand over her husband's eyes.

"Who're you?" she asked, brows knitted.

The stranger walked towards them, her hips swaying from side to side, and she smiled at them, revealing pointy, ivory-colored teeth. Leo shivered; he got a sudden thrill of foreboding from this thing. Heimpatiently brushed Piper's hand away, and reminded himself that this thing wasn't human.

"I'm not human," said the thing. She stepped back and shimmered, but instead of fading away... she was replaced by an enormous, blunt-headed, plowerfully muscled dragon with huge, feathered wings twice the length of her body. Her scales glittered with the light of a thousand suns and Leo thought that despite the danger, he had never seen anything so beautiful. It was orange with splatters of molten yellow on its wings and flecks of gold on its face. It lashed its long, ropy tail and houghed a billow of grey smoke out between its fangs and seemed to grin at them. She was majestic in every sense of the word.

"I am Akkhira. It was with my feather you attempted to scry. Why were you searching for me?" came a female's deep voice from nowhere. Then Leo realized- _it was coming from the dragon_.

"You can talk?" he asked incredulously.

"It can?" Piper echoed.

The dragon seemed to chuckle, although to Leo it sounded more like a rusty growl.

It bowed it's enormous, bull-shaped head once and Leo got the feeling that this thing, wherever it came from, was no common, stupid animal. He sudden;y feared for his life.

"I got permission from our leader to explain this to you, so you won't be alarmed," she said again, her mouth not moving. Her words lingered in the air and somehow reached their ears.

"The elders say you came here before, long ago and nearly wiped all of us ouot," Leo accused, although very cautiously so. The dragon's clawed, prehensile-looking feet looked big enough to squash a gorilla, although now that he thought about it, this dragon wasn't so large; merely, large enough for a human or two to ride on. She fit in the room!

"I am still very young," she said. Leo got the funny feeling she could read minds.

"How young is young for dragons?" asked Pheobe nervously.

"3," she replied simply.

"3? You're huge!" blurted Paige. The dragon growled softly at her, baring three-inch long fangs the size of the athame Piper carreid with her at all times.

"It makes me 150 in human years," the dragon continued.

"Oh," said Paige.

When no one had anything else to say, the dragon stood up straight, her head high above them on its snaky neck, and went on.

"There are others in our world, killing us left, right, and center. Myself, my siblings and my surviving kin were forced to flee here. We had no choice. We call them... The Others,"

"The Others?" echoed Leo.

The dragon nodded sagely and Leo was shocked to see something crystal clear leak from the corner of the dragon's bright red eye. It looked like a gem.

"Dragons weep diamonds," she said simply.

"Well, what do they look like?" asked Pheobe.

"They appear to be human, but they have none of your warmth. They dress in black and kill us with strange, otherworldly light," the dragon explained. It sounded horribly familiar to Leo.

"Avatars," he growled.

"The Avatars, in the dragon realm?" asked Paige, hand on one hip.

"We were forced to flee rather than fight. We created the dragon realm with our own powerful magic, but wih so many of us being killed, that magic is failing and our world is dying," said the dragon sadly.

"That's so sad. Why don't you breed an army and take the Avatars out?" asked Piper. Leo got the feeling she was being half serious.

"We reproduce very slowly. It takes years for a dragon egg to hatch in this world," she replied, folding her hind limbs beneath her and resting on her forelimbs like a dozing cat. She set her large, magnificent head on the floor at their feet and closed her eys. Something hard fell to the floor. A diamond tear, he supposed.

"But the elders said you were dangerous, that you nearly wiped us out before," Leo reminded her. She lifted her head up, so it was level with the two feet of air above Leo's head, and seemed to glare at him. He could feel a low, sluggish heat emenating from her scales and he took a step back.

"We were naive before. We don't interfere now," she countered, blowing smoke at them again.

"Is that how you know about demons? We think we caught a friend of yours before who said demon," said Pheobe, a little more nervously now.

The dragon reared her head back and roared, a frighteningly deafening sound in close quarters, and it echoed and reverberated off the walls. It was like the blast of sound you hear from a roaring campfire, magnified by 50.

"That was my older brother. You scared him quite a bit. He was rescued by our twin brother, Sarka," said the dragon, laughing again in that odd, rusty way she had.

"Ok, so lemme get this straight. You guys were forced to come here and hide away because the Avatars are killing you off. Right?" summed Paige.

"That would be a sufficent summary," replied the dragon, giving her a quizzical look.

"So... what exactly can dragon do?" asked Piper, ot sure she wanted to know.

"We are masters of the sky. The majority or us are peaceful herbivores, but a few of us are rutheless hunters," the dragon began.

"We are unparalelled in magic, so far as we know, and we are immune to witch's powers. Demons cannot hurt us and ordinary weapons cannot penetrate our scales," she finished.

"Do you mean you're invincible as long as you're here," asked Leo.

"Not invincible, no. We can kill each other," she said obviously.

No one said anything for a while, and as was predictable, Paige broke the silence.

"Well, that's something..."


	6. Meeting with the elders

This one is going to be kind of boring, but you learn more about the dragon world.

Please R&R!! Please?? For my birthday?

Enjoy!

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Leo came orbed out of the room, aiming to tell the elders the story. Meanwhile, the dragon, Akkhira, lay on the floor of the Magic School Library, calmly examining her surroundings and seemingly enjpying being back in her own body.

She examined the three human women especially. She thought they must be very closely related; sisters, perhaps. They looked so much alike, although the one with the longer straight hair seemed to be the most critical. She couldn't stop staring at her, and once, when the one with the red lips reached out tentatively to touch her, she nodded and gave her permission.

The woman, Paige, her name was, cautiously ran her small, human hand over her sides and smiled nervously when she felt the heat. Akkhira was still very young, and her scales were not yet the hard, cutting edge razors that the mature adults had.

Several white shimmering lights filled the room right then, and Akkhira stood up in alarm, roaring irritably. A few of the people in white robes looked alarmed at seeing her, so she transformed back into her human form, albeit grudgingly. She hated being so small, and so constricted by their clothing.

There were several nervous coughs all around.

"Are you the dragon Leo has told us about?" asked one of them, a dark skinned stranger with no hair. He seemed stern and not someone to mess with. Akkhira shifted her weight and nodded once.

"I am."

"Please. Revert to your natural form. We won't harm you," he said kindly. Akhhira, gl;ad for an excuse, returned to her dragon form, stretching her enormous feathered wings as wide as the room would allow. They were more than 12 feet wide, and every single inch was needed to drag her off the ground. She stood at around 10 feet tall and weighed a little over a ton. All of it was muscle.

"My name is Akkhira," she said quietly, raisigng her head to its max height, so her muscled chest stood out. She tucked her wings in close to her body and looked down at the humans who weren't humans. They glowed white in her vision.

"Is what Leo told us true? That you are not here to interfere, that you seek help?" asked the dark man again. Akkhira bowed her head once, her horns dipping dangerously close to the chandelier in the room, and she flinched slightly. She decided to lay down once more, and this she did.

"The strangers in your world are well known to us here. We have been discovering more about them each passing day, and they are just as much a threat to us as they seem to be to you," began the dark skinned man, pacing back and forth. Instinctively, her bright red eyes followed him silently with every step he took.

"However, to helo you, we must know in what realm you have made home. It is..;. vital," he continued.

Akkhina narrowed her eyes slightly and stared at the man. She didn't know what to say, whether or not she should answer his question.

She reared her head back and took a deep breath, so her lungs were filled with every particle of magic in the air they could hold, and she made the high-pitched keening noise all dragon hatchlings made when they wanted or needed their parents. It was a call used in later years to alert nearby dragons to danger.

The humans all covered their ears, except the glowing strangers and the man called Leo, and very soon, another of her kind shimmered next to her. It was the pretty, middle-aged human guise of their leader, Tiamat.

Akkhira moved aside so her leader cold change back to her original form as well, and by now, they were all very cramped. Tiamat was quite a bit bigger than Akkhira, being full grown, but the magic of the room they were in made it expand, so they all fit comfortably.

In her natural form, Tiamat was blue-green in color, with magnificent opal-colored feathered wings and a long, fat tail ended with a single club. Her sapphire blue eyes stared around at them all, and the floaty tendrils at the side of her head swayed in a non-existent breeze.

"I am Tiamat, leader of the dragons. What is it you ask of us?" she announced, bowing her head and sinking down onto her belly as Akkhira was. She, too tucked her wings at her side, and curled her tail around her forelegs.

The dark skinned man made a simple bow, and Tiamat smiled. Akkhira guessed she was satisfied that these humans knew a leader when they saw one. Dragons could be quite vain.

"We wished to know what realm you made your home in. We cannot help you rid it of these strangers, as you call them, if we do not know," the dark skinned man repeated. He seemed to be the unofficial leader of these white glowing humans.

"Our realm is parallell to your own, and far closer to what you call the ghostly plane. We use it to spend time with loved ones who have passed on. Our realm is called Draccon Valeeigh. The valley of the dragons," Tiamat answered sagely.

"Thank you. You may go, if you wish, my lady," said another of the strangers, this one with lighter skin and hair, and he bowed. Tiamat said, "be carefull, young one," and shimmered out in fire and flames, leaving behind the smell of sulfur and smoke.

"Well... so who's gonna take us to this realm and how're we gonna vanquish the Avatars?" asked the young human, Paige. Akkhira snorted and stood up. This human thought she could get rid of the strangers who had killed most of her species, when they, the dragons could not? It was unthinkable! But she was still very young, and the thought of what her older brothers would say if they found she had lost control of her emotions was enough to calm her down.

"You must be very careful when we bring you through," she warned, lowering her head until she was eye to eye with the human with red lips. She backed away a few steps, and the one with the straight brown hair glared at her and folded her arms.

"What for?" she asked flatly, standing one one hip. Akkhira focused her intense gaze on this one instead and growled softly, blowing hot air at her so her hair blew back and she grimaced.

"The elements are unstable and the air may be unbreathable. It is why we fled," she said grimly.

"How unstable?" asked the one called Leo.

"Fire and ice, dry and wet, all very close to one another. The elemnts there are clashing and it will be more dangerous. The Others were heard to say that we must all be "wiped out"-"

"-For the greater good," Leo interrupted her grimly. Akhhira snorted again. These humans really were satisfied creatures, weren't they? But they were the dragon's only hope. She would have to live with that fact.

"Yes," she agreed.

"Fine. Leo, take the girls, make a plan. Take Akhhira with you to the Manor and when you're ready, have her open the portal," said the dark skinned one. The strangers all orbed out, leaving Leo, Paige, Piper and Pheobe behind with Akkhira.

"So? We do what he said?" said Paige, rolling her eyes.

"We do what he said," said Akkhira, and she wrapped her long, ropy tail around the one called Paige, set her in the hollow just behind her neck and in front of her wings, and shimmered out, flying into the open skies unseen by all.

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"Wait a second!" demanded Piper angrily, beconing to the dsragon, but it was too late. Akkira smirked with her eyes, said, We do what they said", grabbed Paige, threw her on her back and shimmered out of there. What the hell were htey gonna do with a 3-year-old dragon who kept doing whatever she wanted to do???


	7. Flight to the Manor

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"Yaaahhhhh!!" the human screamed. Akkhira laughed and spread her wings further, stretching them to their extent. She loved the feeling of the wind in her feathers and the clarity up in the air, and she spun like an out of cntrol airplane to avoid a real one. She wasn't worried. Most normal humans couldn't see dragons, and the ones that could were blocked because of her magic.

"What're you doing?!" Paige screamed, clutching her round the neck.

"Bringing you home. I'm just doing what all young dragons do. I'm playing," she said simply, and she wennt into a perfectly controlled dive. Down below, the other two women and Leo spotted them and pointed, alarmed.

She roared joyfully and landed heavily on the ground in front of the manor, flapping her wings a few times and allowing the frightened young woman to climb off her back.

She shook her head back and forth and revelled in being a dragon. She was full of energy! She just wanted to fly, and fly and fly... run and fly!

She reared her head back and let loose a jet of white and blue flames.

"Hey! Take it easy!" scolded the long haired woman, the one called Piper.

"Piper, we need to have a plan... dragons aren't exactly used to being ordered around, so take it easy," Leo warned in an undertone, and at that, Akkhira gave a growling laugh. About that, he was right. Being bigger, more powerful and having wings tended to make a person arrogant.

"I am sorry," she said, although she wasn't.

"I am still very young, and playing is what we do. It'll wear out before I'm six," she added, seeing the disbelieving face of the one called Pheobe.

"Six, huh," said Paige shakily. It was not a question. All three women and Leo headed into the house, and Akkhira transformed back into her human form and followed them. She grudgingly put on clothes, although they were very flowy and very light.

"Ok, Pheobe, go upstairs and get the book of shadows, meet us down here in the sunroom, Leo, call one of the elders. Paige, could you please go up and grab the protective crystals?" Piper started ordering people.

Akkhira took an uninvited seat on the couch and lounged back at her ease. She conjured a large, plumy feather out of midair, one of her own, and began playing with it. She was easily amused, even for a young dragon.. They were actually a lot like kittens, just bigger and sometimes meaner.

"Okay, could ya pay attention please? We need to figure out a pan! What does your leader, or whoever think we should do? After we kill the Avatars, can you go home?" asked Piper. Akkhira looked up from what she was doing and looked at her like an interesting bug.

"No. Too many of us have died. We have to wait until we can up our numbers a bit more. Don't worry; we won't bug you much," she assured her. She smiled as she played with her own feather.

"So... how long are you going to stay here with us?" she asked.

Akkhira shrugged nonchalantly. Honestly, it could take hundreds of years, but she wasn't going to tell her that.

"We reproduce very slowly. It could take fifty years for an egg to hatch out of the right conditions here," replied Akkhira, still playing with her feather.

Piper grabbed the feather and Akkhira glared at her.

"Pay attention, missy, how long does it take for a dragon egg to hatch here? In the right conditions?" snapped Piper.

"Give me back my feather," she growled. She grabbed it back from her and refused to answer. In truth, giving that the egg was in the right conditions, it may take anywhere from a month to a year, but she was still annoyed that she was being treated like a child. She got enough of that in her own community, why didn't her age in this world daunt anyone? She was over 100 years old here! You'd think that would give her some respect!

"I got the book, but I dunno how it's gonna help... there isn't anything in here about dragons, or dragon eggs," said Pheobe, walking downstairs with the enormous book in her arms. She wasn';t looking where she was going and tripped, but Akkhira waved one finger and she was encircled by a soft pink light that caught her. All three women stopped dead in their tracks, for Paige had just walked in carrying the crystals. Akkhira wasn't even watching. She lowered the finger and Pheobe was back on her feet, off the stairs.

"I got the crystals," she said.

Leo orbed in, along with one of the elders, the dark skinned one. They all looked at the dragon-transformed human

"Woooaa. How did you do that?" asked Pheobe, referring to the pink light.

Akkhira shrugged and continued playing with her feather.

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Tricky little dragon, isn't she? Next chapter may take awhile.


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